Southwest Airlines flight 3278 almost took off from a taxiway at Orlando International Airport at around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. The Boeing 737-800 was flagged down by air traffic control as it approached 70 knots according to ADS-B data before hitting the brakes.
According to the FAA, flight crew mistakenly began their takeoff roll on Taxiway H — parallel to Runway 17R — believing it to be the designated runway. The mistake was caught in time; controllers canceled the takeoff clearance mid-roll, and the Albany-bound flight safely returned to its gate.
Southwest says its flight crew mistook a taxiway for a nearby runway today in Orlando. An air traffic controller jumped in and canceled their takeoff clearance as they’d started speeding down a taxiway this morning around 930a. The taxi way runs parallel to the runway.… pic.twitter.com/r30BOhen6Q
— Ryan Sprouse (@RSprouseNews) March 20, 2025
According to the FAA, a Southwest 737-800 "began its takeoff roll on a taxiway" this morning in Orlando.
Ground speed ADS-B data shows the aircraft reaching a top speed of nearly 70 knots on Taxiway H. https://t.co/x1vNl0zCoc pic.twitter.com/7QHn6YQYOQ
— Ryan Ewing (@FlyingHighRyan) March 20, 2025
A Southwest flight aborted takeoff after the crew mistook the taxiway for the runway in Orlando, which run parallel to each other. It comes as investigators give a first look at what they say happened in the Toronto crash landing. @GioBenitez reports. https://t.co/ZKJzlPUCA7 pic.twitter.com/A9A8LU5vkx
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) March 21, 2025
Taxiways are designed solely for ground movement between gates, hangars, and runways, while runways are longer and meant for takeoffs and landings. Incidents like this one create risk of collision with another aircraft, or having insufficient surface length for take off.
Southwest just came out from under an FAA safety review, and this incident follows several such as a flight coming within 150 feet of Tampa Bay in July; another Southwest Airlines flight descending to just over 500 feet while still 9 miles out from the Oklahoma City airport and one taking off from a closed runway in June. In April, a Southwest Airlines flight in Hawaii came within 400 feet of the Pacific Ocean.
My brother and his wife are FAs at WN. To say I worry would be an understatement.
I’m a little surprised that ABC’s nightly news program lead with this story, even though this was relatively mild compared to the tragedy of AA5342, the shocking incident of DL4819, or the even that recent fire and evacuation of AA1006. It seems overall ‘safety’ is seriously in-question and the salacious nature of airplane accidents definitely gets ‘eyeballs’ for the media. If only they could have highlighted how Elliott (mis)Management has been ruining Southwest for their own profit, that’d’ve been swell, but I imagine they wanted to stick more to the ‘facts’ and less ‘editorializing’ for now.
The rise & fall of Southwest Airlines.
@RunningJock — More like the ‘start’ and ‘stop’ of Southwest Airlines, like, they didn’t get off the ground (thankfully, in this case).
737-800 Gary
I’m parked with @1990, Elliott (mis)Management has been running Southwest into the ground (pun intended). These clowns clearly do not understand the commercial airline business.
I’m not a pilot, but I would think taking off from a taxiway would be a difficult error to make. No? Much harder than, say, landing on a taxiway at night.
@1990 – surprised? Come on, the evening ‘news’ is solely there for shock & awe, because they know that’s what gets eyeballs. There is no integrity left at all, it’s purely down to who can get the most people watching no matter what.
And let’s be honest and call balls and strikes here. Elliott’s destruction of WN, as horrible as that destruction is, has nothing to do with this incident – this comes down 100% to pilot error.
These Close calls can’t keep going on forever.
70kts? Are you sure they were trying to take off? That’s pretty much a normal taxi speed for Southwest on a taxiway.
(That’s a joke non-aviation people, if you know you know)
Maybe Elliott has determined their airport fees will be less if they use taxiways instead of runways (sarcasm.)
These pilots had to be distracted by non flying activity. Like possibly a deep conversation about current Southwest events. This is comparable to a motorist driving on railroad tracks thinking it a roadway. Yes that does happen and it almost always involves a drunk driver not an honest mistake.
Expect more of the same with the ‘juniority’ issue confronting the airlines these days…. Just chalk it up to the cost of doing business …. and don’t hold your breath for concrete action from our banana-republic style government these days … Travel at your own risk…. Although maybe a prayer broadcast in the cabin before take off like some Middle Eastern carriers might not be a bad idea these days (although it’s about as useless as the former !)… lol
Hey, who among us hasn’t raced down the highway access road?
“The Bus of the Sky!”